“It’s a weird thing to say that leaving Naughty Dog was one of the greatest things to happen in my career.”

As a part of Naughty Dog’s team, Bruce Straley directed a number of important games such as The Last of Us and Uncharted 4. He had resigned from Naughty Dog back in September, 207 and took a year-long sabbatical. On the most recent episode of the Final Games Podcast, (via: OnlySP) Straley spoke about his experience working at Naughty Dog ona number of different games.

Straley talked about his last day at Naughty Dog and how the whole team had showed up to bid farewell to him He said, ““I was always kinda searching for[…] somebody to acknowledge ‘Dude, you’re okay. You’re worth something'[…] And something about the last day of Naughty Dog, where the whole team showed up[…] it’s a beautiful thing that they went out of their way to set up an event for me[…] And it’s crazy that you have to leave somewhere to get the acknowledgement.” He then went on to talk about how rewarding it was to know that he personally made an impact on people’s lives. “The emotional security that I’ve always been looking for finally came[…] and it sounds so broken and so wrong to say it, but at the same time, it was kinda the most emotional and most beautiful and[…] most validating experience that I’ve had in my career[…] That I’ve actually made an impact on people personally is the most rewarding thing of my entire career.”

Bruce Straley also spent time talking about his work with Naughty Dog and how he was able to bring forward his vision for games through titles such as The Last of Us and Uncharted 4. He said, “It’s a weird thing to say that leaving Naughty Dog was one of the greatest things to happen in my career[…] The Last of Us was really the culmination of a lot of philosophies that I had been building up and that was amazing, and to win awards on Uncharted 2 and to dedicate myself to something; I had a vision and I really spearheaded that project with the idea of wanting to make something that I hadn’t played before in the industry, and that really manifested itself in a way that I never could have imagined.”

Bruce Straley had worked at Naughty Dog for 18 years and we’ll have to wait and see what he plans to do next.